Major Documents

Populorum Progressio turns fifty! Fifty years after Blessed Paul VI issued Populorum Progressio, Pope Francis has created a Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development. As our introduction to Populorum Progressio explains, it was this encyclical that first introduced the language of integral human development into Catholic Social Teaching. Pope Francis’ action shows that this major […]

Pope Francis’ 2015 encyclical Laudato Si (On the Care of Our Common Home) responds to the environmental crisis. It builds on the teachings of Saint John XXIII, Blessed Paul VI and Benedict XVI on environmental matters and takes its name from the famous canticle of St Francis of Assisi. Pope Francis begins by contemplating the […]

Pope Francis’ World Day of Peace Message for 2015, No Longer Slaves, but Brothers and Sisters,focuses on slavery today and the need for solidarity. Relationships & God’s Plan for Us Pope Francis places the social, or relational, nature of human beings at the centre of God’s plan for us. He uses the term ‘fraternity’ to […]

This 2013 Apostolic Exhortation by Pope Francis was his first major teaching document. It is a wide-ranging conversational document that covers many topics. He stresses the joy of the Gospel and the social dimension of evangelisation. Chapter one says that, as an evangelising community, the whole church must get involved “by word and deed in […]